Choose a development board

Hello, i thought to write here instead of the board section since i didn t choose witch board to take yet.
I already have a maple mini but since i loved this new environmeent i would like a development board for projecting

About the mcu i would like to remain on the F103, better if it is CB like as the maple mini but also others are ok, i don t need the jtag since i prefer to use the dfu and bootloader

My eyes dropped immediately on the smart v2.0 since i found it on aliexpress for only 3.5 euros and for the oled pinout. Then i discovered that is very hard to find a oled with the same pinout…

Then i saw the iteadmaple but i didn’t find a lot of info about it and the oled pinout seems weird as in the other board so i thought to write here asking for advices that will be very appreciated

Edit: i have to admit that a f407 with sd and rtc for only 11 euros is not bad https://it.aliexpress.com/store/product … 22721.html

P.S: it has to be cheap i am just a student

all the stm32duino fans are actually drooling over the stm32f407(v,z)et6_black, it is a *much* faster board compared for stm32f103: 168mhz, hardware fpu, has a built in 100mbps ethernet mac (but u’d need to buy your own add on RMII PHY), has build in 200mbps high speed USB 2.0 port (buy u’d need to buy your own add on USB 2.0 PHY), faster adc, dac, tons of spi, i2c, uart, sdio support for sd card, 140 gpios (for you to remap over existing pins)
.. oh and 196k sram + 512k flash (that’s quite a bit roomier compared to stm32f103 20k sram 64/128k flash)
http://www.st.com/en/microcontrollers/stm32f407ve.html
just that the stm32F4duino implementation is currently still in an embryonic stage
you can imagine with 200 mbps USB 2.0, your duino logic analyzer may read like 20 msps 16 channels logic analyzer

aster wrote:Edit: i have to admit that a f407 with sd and rtc for only 11 euros is not bad https://it.aliexpress.com/store/product … 22721.html

P.S: it has to be cheap i am just a student

@aster
this is the Black F407ZET, @palmerr123 has a useful ‘add-in’ for the Black F407VET in development.
the ZET is no doubt next
for price difference vers capability i’d spend the extra.
the aliexpress vendors’ blurb includes a link for a compatible 3.2 lcd display, a ‘bit*2’ over the odds in price,
but they certainly match up.
the pcb’s for all are the same black and marked up maker wise in the same style.

stephen

and i’ll get to CubeMX tonight for the VET to match the hardware, i might have a go at the ZET.
N.B. I’m using HAL and Ac6 System Workbench, Debian Jessie 8.x Lenovo Y50 i7 16gb.

stephen

You are all tempting me ahahah i saw a few post “down” in the board section and it looks like that you are moving fast with this board. Having a code (using only arduino style API and not board specific functions) that with a simple recompile could be flashed both on a f1 or f4 would be very very great
… and since the board would take at least 1.5 months to arrive maybe the timer and spi will be already ready to go when i receive it
Some of you have seen mini board version with the f407? Usually i make small application and this 100pin package is not quite small compared to a f1
As i am not an expert i wouldn t be able to help you, the maximum i could do would be to test the core

Does someone know if the pin mapping between maple mini and itead maple is the same?

aster wrote:Some of you have saw mini board version with the f407?

The problem of drones controllers (i have a few based on avr, some self made) is that all the group of 3 pin that you see are: signal/vcc/ground for the esc and rc. So really these tiny boards only provide a small number of pins of the mcu (but they have at least a mpu6050)

i’ve updated the ‘tiny’ thread there are more ‘tiny’ boards (not just drone controllers) or at least ‘small’ boards there now, some of which fits a slightly fatter mini form factor
i like the boards from olimex, though it is at a somewhat premium. olimex provides pretty good documentation (schematics, manuals) on the product web and their boards are quite well designed and made

There is another version of the f407vet6 i didn t saw before:

https://it.aliexpress.com/item/STM32F40 … 3f4a046040

They moved the rtc down, removed the nrf24l01 and the tft pinout and it cost more, so i don t think someone will ever buy it

edit: added a link under suggestion of ag123 (see next post) found in the description:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bw-L6X … llczg/view
i din ‘t checked all the contents

that looks like a pretty good board and a compact one too
but do request or google for the schematics as that’s 1 document that really helps
added a couple more ‘mini’ boards in the ‘tiny’ thread

I think could be helpfull for future users if you correct this page that has a lot of inaccuracies, some vet6 are divided by colors ( ) and one of them is with the zet boards

http://wiki.stm32duino.com/index.php?ti … 4xx_boards

All the zet6 boards are exactly the same as the vet6
http://s.aliexpress.com/bE7Nfmai

This is the only board with ztg6 at good price i could find on ali
http://s.aliexpress.com/jaE3uiEr
Documentation from the seller:
https://1drv.ms/f/s!Ar3VgAmjw82ygQnPJF1W4vT_kvtj

Also a comparing table as for the f1boards would be great

someone inserted the blue 407 vet after the black vet.
the black zet is referenced within the black vet text as from the same supplier/maker.

the aliexpress link to Numon Electronic Cyberport Store is where when i found them, they had all 3 vet, zet & zgt boards along with suggested displays.
my first vets were ordered 10-3-17 (sisters birthday, not for her though), as i’ve commented before the displays are pricey.
subtle difference on FSMC pinout, not so subtle is the header versus socket LCD connection.

sadly no igt based ones.

actually looking at my order list for Numon, one of the black f407vet and the f407zgt’ s ordered is what i’d describe as a devils cross when looked at, those have NO NRF24, the SDIO is not on the pcb edge, swd header versus uart1 header and a micro USB.
anyone seen a black vet & zgt f4-demo devils cross schematic ?
<edit>seems @palmerr has something in his black f4 repo</edit>
stephen

anyone seen a black vet & zgt f4-demo devils cross schematic ?
I just received the answer with documentation from the seller of the devil’s cross (i like the name) and i edited the last post

The main things that prevents me to take the zgt6 is the bigger size: 144pin compared to 100 but yesterday i found out that it means only a 5mm of difference, not so much

people who run into these forums in an accident would soon be wondering where in the world does blue pill, black vet6 and devils cross exist, maybe soon ebay and aliexpress vendors would use the same names and notations here

ag123 wrote:people who run into these forums in an accident would soon be wondering where in the world does blue pill, black vet6 and devils cross exist, maybe soon ebay and aliexpress vendors would use the same names and notations here

emhhh sorry but what is this?

https://github.com/stm32duino

are they copying your work?

edit: i just saw that between the members there is roger, so what is going to happen? the two cores will join together?
it looks at a very embrionic stage, quite no documentation…
looks like that the f4 core for the VG is being under continuous work

there are now about 2.66667 different implementations (cores) of the stm32 F4 duino, actually not limited to just F4

there is STM32GENERIC – this is now 1 of the hottest (for now) in terms of the mass play effort
http://www.stm32duino.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=1966
the detailed topics are actually discussed here http://www.stm32duino.com/viewforum.php?f=46

then ST Microelectronics itself commissioned a an effort to do a ST Micro’s implementation of stm32 duino. yup from the chip maker itself
so you have https://github.com/stm32duino
http://www.stm32duino.com/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=1943
http://www.stm32duino.com/viewtopic.php?f=48&t=1413
then palmerr made a derivative of ST’s core for the Black F407VET6 (my guess is ebay & aliexpress vendors better don’t change the color of that board )
https://github.com/palmerr23/Black-F407VET6-cube

both STM32GENERIC and ST Micro’s implementation is based on the ST CubeMX HAL and/or ST standard peripherals library, this is deemed to be an optimum approach as CubeMX HAL and standard peripherals library is developed by ST released to the public and it supports possibly the full range of STM32 devices, note that it isn’t as simple as that, if you look at the libraries you would note huge HAL libraries for each series e.g. F0, F1, F2, F3, F4, F7, L4, L* etc. running into some 160 megs it reflects the amount of efforts needed to build that HAL API to support STM32 devices across the series

then last but not least there is stm32duino from roger’s repository and is the origin of this forum (this is originated from leaflab’s libmaple implementation)
https://github.com/rogerclarkmelbourne/Arduino_STM32
it is *highly optimised* for STM32F103 blue pill and maple mini and the likes (e.g. the original maple from leaflabs https://www.leaflabs.com/maple/, OLIMEXINO-STM32 https://www.olimex.com/Products/Duino/S … e-hardware, and tons of other STM32F103* on ebay / aliexpress)
it has at this stage some ‘minimal’ support for the STM32F4 and a development branch based on the Black STM32F407 board is on steve’s repository
https://github.com/stevstrong/Arduino_S … F4_variant
http://www.stm32duino.com/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=1981

this is more like a ‘status’ at this instance in time and would rapidly change in no time

okkkk i have the embarrassment of riches about possibles cores, i will just pick the best documented, and danieleff is making a good work even if for now there are too low API implemented for my needs and ability

I think that at the end would prevail the STM32duino from ST since they are a company and could afford to pay some bills to the developers that are working in this forum but maybe i am wrong

just bought a new mini f4 board bought on impulse
http://www.stm32duino.com/viewtopic.php … 327#p27327
it is literally a mini f407vet with perhaps about all the gpio pins broken out !
after i click buy i looked closer at the board photos, they use ceramic resonator rather than crystal oscillator, not sure whether to regret about it
—–
my goof NX5032GA seemed to be a smd crystal, rather than ceramic resonator
http://www.ndk.com/images/products/cata … SU-2_e.pdf
it seemed the ‘epson’ 32768khz part is also an smd crystal just that i’m not sure what is the part number for it
i’d guess a little more research is needed about these smt crystals
—

ceremic resonator has been known to ‘mess up the RTC’ poor timekeeping, poor frequency stability vs crystal
https://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=60662.0
http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=69316.15

unfortunately, this is as mini a f407vet board as i can find for now and one which is decently well build (and not too high priced). u’d only need to look at the monster number of pins on the headers, that’s possibly as little area to put all that headers breaking out all the pins